devilshalo

I keep wondering who owns the rights to Spider-man™, cuz JJJ should be making bank on merchandising if he was the first... I dunno if the Ring Announcer will make the connection Peter in the cage pre-suit to the current costume.

caligulathegod

Even in the comic it is a plain old regular mask, though. It would have taken "magic" to make it animate.

Which brings us to...

I know it seems that all realism goes out the window because of the premise and they should be able to do anything, but one must consider that Spider-Man is different than most comic books. While the Fantastic Four are independently wealthy and fly around in a hovercar fighting maniacal heads of state and world-eating gods and Thor is an actual god fighting Loki and Asgardians, Spider-Man is humble every-man Peter Parker. He has problems with his girlfriend (if he can get one), worries about rent and laundry money, has to take care of his elderly aunt May, he's hated by the press and most people who misunderstand his intentions, etc. In other words, he's us. Spider-Man was the first "real world" comic book that posited what it would be like if a superhero were like us with our problems. What they wanted to do with the movies was to reflect that. First, they take an ordinary loser's life and give it an (Amazing) fantasy element, if you will, and make him into a super-being with powers above and beyond the abilities of normal people. You just have to accept the premise that he's now magical. That ends the fantasy premise. Peter Parker is now ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. However, to emphasize how special the fantasy element is, the rest of the world must remain mundane. It doesn't work (in this premise) if the rest of the world is given magic, too. Spider-Man's villains must be based in "the real world". Both the major villains in the first two movies came almost completely intact in adaptation from the comic books but were also "real world". In the comics, Green Goblin is a wealthy industrialist who has developed a super-steroid and highly technological weaponry who has gone mad. Dr Octopus is a scientist who is fused with some high technology waldos to handle highly radioactive material. On the surface, they seem like fantasy, but they aren't really. The technology is beyond what we are capable today, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. Maxwell Smart's shoe phone was fantasy in the sixties, now we all have our own complete entertainment centers in our shirt pockets. I've seen Discovery shows where they have electrodes implanted that allow amputees to control prosthetics, and there are new implants that help people see and hear.

So, it's not that easy to simply make Osbourne turn into an actual demon or to somehow animate a rubber mask. It's a fantasy, but Spider-Man is the only true fantasy element. He has this amazing ability that allows him to confront the over-the-top villains, but still has ordinary problems that we all have. The fantasy doesn't help him with those.

Which brings us back to part three. It's still the same idea. Now we've seen what happens to Peter when he gets the fantasy powers. What would have happened if he made wrong choices? First we get him faced with wrong choices and we get his dark side, then we get a doppelganger that shows us the ultimate result of those bad decisions if Peter hadn't changed his ways. It's such a great idea for a third movie and the overall arc. Yeah, there are 30 years of villains they skipped to get to Venom, but it all makes such great sense and is quite inspired.

Now, the thing that throws all this out the window is Sandman. This is going to sound like a cop-out, I know. By including Sandman, Raimi has corrupted his premise (that Spider-Man be the only truly supernatural element in what's otherwise grounded in an admittedly hyper-stylized "real world"). All I can say is that it is an exception based upon an idea that they needed a villain that wouldn't interfere too much with the storyline of Peter/Dark Peter (and not look like an idiot in a Rhino costume or Vulture costume) and would be an entertaining special effect. Kraven would have dominated the story (but he might make a good future villain), Mysterio would make a good TV series villain but not a movie villain (a special effects wizard seems dated in a world of CGI). Sandman is a classic villain that was shoehorn-able in the film and will have to be forgiven for breaking premise.

So, ultimately, there is good reason for finding "real world" explanations for Spider-Man villains which makes it undesirable to just turn it into a fairy tale where everything is magical. Sandman is just a bone to be thrown in now that the basic concept is established. It is the third film, so it's not as necessary to make Peter as unique, I expect.

LivingINClip

This can all be summed up fairly easy.


Spider-Man / Superman

Spider-Man 2 / Superman 2 (I quit! I don't need these powers!)

Spider-Man 3 / Superman 3 (I got a nifty dark suit..I'mmmmmmmmm evillllllll..!)

devilshalo

A couple different scenes in this trailer...
http://downloads.cinemas-online.co.u...er_4_1500k.mov

lukewarmwater

FYI I just went to 711 and saw they had spiderman 3 cups. Picked up the venom one. They had spiderman and sandman, but venom is the coolest looking one. And if you go to
http://www.slurpee.com/

you can get a buy one get one free coupon and see what they look like.

Xbox69

No 7-11s in this part of Texas. I'm hoping they issue the Dr. Pepper promotional cans as they did with the previous two releases.

sureAV421

yahoo has a new second version of the final trailer with new Venom footage

whotony

link ?

sureAV421

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/spiderman3.html
(direct link for 720p)
http://63.250.192.38/st0105r01/001/y...310i9t46181be4

Duh Vuh Duh

New trailer up, not too much more action stuff, but more of the church scene with Eddie Brock.

http://movie-list.com/s/spider-man3-trl3.html

outcastja

Just wanted to let people know that midnight showing tickets are on sale for Regal theaters, I got tickets to the IMAX at the Irvine Spectrum.

Supermallet

Just got my midnight IMAX tickets for the Bridge in West L.A.

devilshalo

So you're coming down that weekend?

Supermallet

I'm back down already. I'm the manager of the EB Games right next to the Bridge.

TriviaDude5

Where Spidey's in Imax: http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/spiderman_3_imax.htm

Jackskeleton

Ok, that movie kicked so much ass it should register itself as a deadly weapon.

I didn't think they could cram all three bad guys in there and do it justice but we got good number of fights, a decent character field story and the effect shots of venom will make all you fan boys jump for joy.

Jackskeleton

Ok, that movie kicked so much ass it should register itself as a deadly weapon.

I didn't think they could cram all three bad guys in there and do it justice but we got good number of fights, a decent character field story and the effect shots of venom will make all you fan boys jump for joy.

Douche bag peter made the movie for me. He sure makes that russian neighbor do some silly things. Oh man, I loved it.

stingermck

Its funny how the keep showing Spidey with his mask off all the time, trying to cement Tobey as the "only" Spider-man. Coupled with Kirsten’s remark that a sequel without her, Tobey, and Sam would be a flop.

Obey The D

Poor Kirsten...she's out of her mind if she thinks shes irreplaceable.

Artman

Personally I think Tobey's the only one necessary for future films. The general public wouldn't know Raimi isn't directing... and they're introducing Gwen in this one, so there's the new female lead.

Rogue588

Must be the talkin'...

Jackskeleton

It's insane how many times peters mask comes off during the film. Hell, there's one shot where he's looking down on a mob of fans waiting to be introduced and he has his masked off. Any one with a camera could have easily turned around and snapped his identity. Though I guess that's where I'm suppose to suspend my disbelief.

Cartload

Agreed. X-Men: The Last Stand was a prime example of this. I got a lot of blank stares when I told the average person my enthusiasm for seeing that movie plummeted because Bryan Singer wasn't coming back to direct.

devilshalo

Hah.. the thing is, there are probably dozens of fans and other people for various reasons dressed like Spider-man. It's like the last scene in V for Vendetta. How would you know who is Spider-man and who wasn't?

Supermallet

The guy doing the crazy web-swinging acrobatics and sticking to walls is probably the Spidey you're looking for.